


Trouble in "Eden"

by Writing_will_be_my_death



Series: Head Up, Eyes Forward [3]
Category: Homestuck, Original Work
Genre: Abuse, Discrimination, Drugs, Other, Past Child Abuse, Prostitution, Revolution, That's fun, a lot of shit happens ok, but the two mains are Dave and Karkat's kids so, now for the real tags, warning there are basically only original characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2019-11-13 13:58:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18033041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writing_will_be_my_death/pseuds/Writing_will_be_my_death
Summary: Earth C was supposed to be a paradise, and yet it seems that discrimination remains anyway. The law says that all people are equal, and "people" is defined as any human, troll, carapace, or consort. It says nothing on the combinations thereof.This is especially troubling, as there are many human-troll hybrids now in existence, and the gods have long since resigned their place in ruling.





	1. Good Morning!

**Author's Note:**

> lmao no one's going to read this but it's here anyway!

An alarm blares in your ear.

You slap your nightstand to turn it off, but nothing happens.

Of course.

Your name is Tayli Strider-Vantas, you are 19 years old, and your sister’s alarm has just woken you up. What time even is it? Will this alarm even wake her up? Probably not. Oh well, that’s her problem. On second thought, you can’t remember the last time you needed an alarm anyway. Wow, how stupid are you? 

Not stupid at all, because you’re tired. It’s okay if you’re stupid while you’re tired because you don’t need to be smart yet. You know things. Many things.

“Tay, wake the fuck up,” Lelah says as she pokes your side. It’s less of a poking and more of a stabbing.

“Im awake, I’m just not up. Check and mate, bitch,” haha, Lelah can never defeat you.

Something big and soft lands on your head.

“Then you can do my laundry.”

“Oh my god, that’s disgusting!” You scramble to get out of bed and out of Lelah’s dirty laundry.

By the time you’re free, Lelah has already left the room. You snarl, from what your dad tells you, you two have been like this for all your lives. Your pa confirmed this, despite the fact that he’s only been around since you were 4.

You walk out of your room, and Lelah has disappeared. Or she’s in the bathroom, but you don’t care. Your parents are sitting at the dining table, and it looks like your pa made pancakes. You can tell because they’re burnt.

“Daaaaaaaaad,” you whine.

“What,” he says. He probably already knows what you’re going to say.

“Why’d you let pa make breakfast?”

“Hey! I’m practicing! One day I’ll be amazing, and you know it!” Your pa replies. Your dad chuckles at that.

Lelah comes out of the bathroom, and looks at the dining table.

“Pa, why the fuck did you make breakfast? You burnt the fucking pancakes.”

You take a pancake and shove it in your mouth.

“This pancake is amazing!” you lie.

Lelah looks at you in disgust.

“I’m buying my own breakfast,” you hear Lelah say under her breath.

“Coward!” You shout at her.

~

You put on your sunhat, and sunglasses. They go very nicely with your pink sundress, jean jacket, and brown satchel bag. It’s time to head out into the cruel outside world, where you and Lelah both wear terrible outfits to hide the fact that you’re hybrids.

Lelah has already left for the day, but you leave much later, listening to mid 2000s earth pop songs. You don’t care if people say they’re shitty, you like them anyway.

You pass through the lobby, saying hi to a few neighbours, and skip off to try and get a job at a coffee shop or something. Most places have signs up, “No two-face” or “One-face only” even a few “NO HYBRIDS” apparently the ones explicitly about hybrids are new.

Finally, you find a place that doesn’t have any anti-hybrid signs, and has a hiring sign. It’s an old café place, probably been around since before your parents moved here.

You go inside, and almost immediately see a hybrid- they’re most troll, the only thing breaking the illusion is their human eyes. You smile internally, not wanting to blow your cover even in a safe place like this, and walk up to the barista. She’s got long black wavy hair and the tell-tale horns of a fuchsia blood, a name tag tells you her name is Toffie. She’s really pretty.

“Hi, I saw your hiring sign outside, and I was wondering if you would accept my resume?” You lower your shades to show her you’re a hybrid, and hopefully, she’ll realize that this could be the only place to hire you.

She gives you a sad smile, “Management turns down all hybrids, my friend was immediately kicked out of the hiring process when they found out he was a hybrid,” well fuck, “but if you need a place to stay, you can stay with me and my friends.”

“No, I’ve food, and a roof, and money, my parents are rich,” you sigh, “I’m just really fucking bored.”

She looks up at the clock, “My shift ends at one-thirty, you can come hang out with me and my roomates if you want?”

You smile, “Sure, for the time being I’ll have a medium hot chocolate with whipped cream.”

It’s not like you’re going to turn down the opportunity to hang out with a pretty girl.

~~~~~

It’s 1pm, and you’re in the library. You hate the headband you wear, and you hate the shades you wear, but without them you couldn’t be here. This is the library with the more scholarly books, the books you want to read.

Your name is Lelah Strider-Vantas, and no one knows you’re planning on going to med school.

You remember in 4th grade, when your teacher looked at your class of 12 hybrids and 9 non-hybrids, and told you two answers to your test. STIs cannot pass between species, hybrids do not exist. Your entire school knew both of those things were false. Of the 65 kids in your grade, 27 of them were called in for parent teacher meetings after not following teacher instructions for that test. 21 of them were hybrids. 7 of them were in your class, 6 hybrids and one non-hybrid. 2 of them were you and Tayli.

Tayli had argued with the teacher. She didn’t normally argue with people, not like that. That’s what you normally did. Your dad held Tayli as she screamed about how it wasn’t fair. Your pa carried you as you cried silently into his shoulder.

In the first year of highschool, you got measles. You have troll skin, it didn’t make sense. Most people would have taken you to the doctor, but doctors didn’t know how to treat hybrids. You stayed in a “quarantine” room on the 8th floor of your building with a bunch of other kids with measles. Tayli visited more than she should’ve. She never got measles.

Tayli got breath-rot the following year. It’s a troll disease that makes your lungs fill with blood, and it’s highly contagious, but luckily can only affect you once in your life. There was no “quarantine” room for breath-rot, and she was bedridden in your shared room for weeks. You never got breath-rot.

Today you read books on the diseases that plagued your apartment building. Sometimes you find stories about people getting diseases of other species, but it’s hard to tell who’s lying and who’s telling the truth.

It’s 3pm. You’ve studied anatomy of a troll many times, and you find yourself tracing the lines of the nervous system. It varies greatly from humans, you find it much more stunning. 3 different types of pain receptors, you wonder if you have that, or if Tayli does. You hope you have it. The nervous system is particularly interesting in the horns. You imagine if your horns were real, not plastic on a band that threatens to fall.

You imagine having Tayli’s night vision.

You imagine being a troll.

It’s 5pm. A tall, wide, black carapace taps you on the shoulder. You fell asleep two hours ago. You apologize to the carapace, put the books away, and leave the library to head home.

~

You’re at the bus stop with three other people. A salamander consort, a crocodile consort, and a fellow hybrid. The hybrid can’t tell that you’re also a hybrid. He’d probably try and talk to you, and you don’t like talking. He’s part seadweller, short with outward angular horns, with the only thing giving away his hybrid nature being his blotchy mix of human and troll skin.

The bus pulls up, and the consorts get on first. You follow behind them, and the hybrid is behind you. The bus driver, a human, yells at him, tells him he’s not person and isn’t allowed on the bus. The bus driver throws a rock at the hybrid’s head, and it hits, causing human red blood to flow from his forehead.

The doors close and the bus drives on, leaving the hybrid bleeding on the street. You feel bad, not doing anything, but there’s nothing you could have done. If you’d stepped up, all that would’ve happened is that you too would have been kicked off the bus. Tayli would have helped. 

“They really need to get rid of all those blasted two-faces,” the old human woman next to you says. “They’re going to take our jobs, you know. You should have beat up that bastard at the bus stop, but I get it, you’re a good kid, don’t wanna beat anyone up.”

You don’t answer her, and she doesn’t notice. She just keeps complaining about hybrids. You wonder if she’s got a family, or grandchildren. They could be about your age. You feel bad for them, if they exist. You wonder if her family is just like her, or if they’re kinder. Or meaner.

A peculiarly shaped hat on a human, trolls with sunglasses on, faces covered in makeup. This bus has at least 7 other disguised hybrids on it, and a non-hybrid would never know. There’s a tension between you all. No one mentions it. None of you helped that undisguised hybrid, yet none of you blame the others. If you helped every hybrid who was threatened, you’d never do anything else.


	2. Plans in the making

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lelah and Tayli have very different outlooks on the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hg enjoy more ocs

Before you know it, it’s 1:30, and Toffie disappears into the back. She comes back in through the front door, smiling at you.

Your name is Tayli Strider-Vantas, and you’re about to go over to a pretty girl’s place.

“So, we walking or busing?” You ask her. “Or do you drive?”

“Busing, I’m practically broke and the apartment is too far to walk.”

You walk out together, and wait at the bus stop. You make small conversation, and learn that her roommates are Crow, Nicko, and Saytl, and that they’ve been friends for several years now. You learn that none of them were able to go to a proper school.

The bus pulls up, and you get on. You end up needing to take a second bus to get to her apartment. 

~

When you finally get to her apartment, it looks completely run down and un-livable.

“This place looks like shit,” you remark, but keep a joking tone.

“It is shit,” she replies in the same tone.

The two of you head up three floors, jumping over rotting stairs and suspicious liquids. Room 431 turns out to be her apartment.

“We got a guest! Be decent please!” She hollers.

“Status?” Another voice calls back, completely monotone.

“Oh come on, I’m trying to make friends!”

“No status, no entry.”

“Ugh, fine, she’s safe, but I’m not doing a full run down while she’s right here.”

“Define ‘safe’.”

You think it’s your turn to speak up. “I’m a fucking hybrid if that’s what you wanted to know? I don’t have any weapons, just wanted a job but it turns out the place doesn’t accept hybrids to work.”

A hybrid gold blood with patchy gray and tan skin, a green left eye and red right eye, a straight and curved in horn duo on the left side of their head and pixie cut black hair appears. They wear a torn t shirt and jeans, and you notice scars snaking up their arms.

“Toffi, get changed. Crow’s out getting food and Saytl’s got a headache.”

“Please don’t freak her out, she doesn’t know you like the rest of us do,” She pleads, but walks off anyway.

“I’m Nicko Kristi, and a fair warning, I am physically incapable of expressing emotions. Crow generally lets everyone what the fuck im feeling but he’s out.” They put their hand out to shake.

“I’m Tayli Strider-Vantas,” you say as you shake their hand.

“You on good terms with your parents?”

“Considering I live with them, I damn well hope so.” You laugh at your own joke, which is bad, but it’s not like Nicko can laugh.

“That’s funny, I’d laugh if I could. Anyway, come on in. Saytl’s sleeping, so be quiet.”

You follow them inside, and find out that the apartment is a studio, with two queen sized mattresses on the floor. One has a sleeping lump on it. Probably Saytl. Comfortable now, you take off your sunhat and shades.

“So,” Nicko starts, “did Toffi give you the revolution invite or is that for me to do.”

“The what?” You love revolution.

“We’ve got a revolution going on. A longer explanation will take place once everyone is here, but basically we’re very active about trying to make hybrids quality as people.”

You smile wickedly. “Where do I sign up?”

“Technically there’s no official sign up, but you do get a traditional alternian revolution pendant. Is the sign of the signless.”

“Isn’t he theorized to be an ancestor of one of the gods?”

“Toffi is better with that stuff than I am. You can ask her more about history stuff.” They pause momentarily. “You’re on good terms with your parents, right?”

“Yeah?”

“And how old are you?”

“19?”

“Awesome. Ask them what the state of the government was 2 years before your birth.”

“What? Why?”

Toffie bounds into the room, now wearing a clean white t shirt and blue jeans. Also with blonde hair and no horns, guess she just wears a very convincing troll disguise. 

“Because!” Toffi exclaims, “there is are no records of who was president during that time! For 4 years there was no president! No one has payed attention to this! What the fuck!”

“Ssssshut up,” an unknown voice complains.

“Sorry,” Toffi whisper-shouts.

“So, revolution,” you whisper. “I’m totally down for that.”

Toffi smiles at you, and Nicko gives you a thumbs up.

~~~~~

The bus pulls up to your apartment building, and you sigh and get up. You hate this building.

Your name is Lelah Strider-Vantas, and you don’t want to be home, but here you are anyway.

You quickly climb up the stairs, avoiding as many interactions as possible. Opening the door to your apartment, you can easily, and happily, tell that your dad is making dinner, not your pa.

“Grub lasagna smells good,” you say.

Your dad huffs. “Good. We were missing half the fucking spices but no one’s gone grocery shopping recently so I couldn’t make anything else,” your dad eyes your pa as he speaks. Clearly, your pa was asked to go grocery shopping.

“I forgot, okay. There were a lot of things to do,” your dad starts.

“I swear, you two are like perpetual teenagers,” you say as you go to your room to wait for dinner.

What surprises you, is that Tayli isn’t there. The bathroom door was open, so she’s not there either, and you didn’t see her in the lobby. She’s not particularly close to anyone in the building, as most of them are as pessimistic as you. And not to mention what she did when you were 16.

You’re about to ask where she is, but your pa speaks first. “Lee, did Tay tell you she was gonna be out this late?”

“No, I’ll call her though.”

“Thanks.”

Pulling out your phone and pressing Tayli’s number, you wait through several rings before she picks up.

“What up my sister-in-law?” She answers.

“First of all,” you start, “we don’t exist in the law. Second of all, even if we did, we wouldn’t be sisters-in-law, we’d just be sisters. Third of all and finally, where the fuck are you, dinner is almost ready.”

“‘Aight.” She replies.

A pause.

“Well? Are you coming home?” You yell at her.

“Yeah! It’ll just take me a bit, okay? I’m like, two bus rides from home, at least.”

It’s not like bussing at night is dangerous for a hybrid or anything.

“You’re not bussing. I’m telling pa to pick you up.”

“No! No, no, I’m fine. I’m fine! Really it’s not-”

“Where are you.”

“Lee-”

“Where. Are. You.”

“... 55673 Diviner Avenue.”

“What the fuck are you doing there? That’s like, where hybrids go to fucking die!”

“Hey I’m fine, okay? I’m with friends.”

“We don’t have friends.”

“No, you don’t have friends.”

“Oh my gods, whatever, bye, see you at dinner.”

You hang up.

“Paaaaaa!” You call out.

“Leeeeeee!” He calls back.

“Tay’s at 55673 Diviner Avenue. Go pick her up!”

“Alright, thanks Lee!”

You hear the door open and close, and then your dad calls you. “Lelah, come set the table.”

“Okayy.”

And so, you stroll out to do so.

“So, what did you do today?” Your dad asks as you grab the plates.

You shrug. “I read.”

“What did you read?”

“Books. In the library,” you reply as you set the plates in place.

“What were the books about?”

You grab the cutlery. “Stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?” He’s running out of patience.

You put the cutlery in place. “Stuff you wouldn’t find interesting.”

“Lelah, if it’s something that interests you, it automatically interests me. If you don’t want to tell me, for whatever reason, that’s okay. I’m just… worried about you. And I know that it’s an unhelpful and clichée thing to say, but it’s the truth. I’d get professional help for you if it was legal.”

You sigh. “The… thought, i guess, is appreciated.”

Maybe once you’re a doctor, things like that can become legal. Maybe. You’ll probably need a friend in law.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)

**Author's Note:**

> if you read this, comment. even just a smiley face would literally make me the happiest person alive.
> 
> also heres the link to the image if it doesnt work https://dumb-arts.tumblr.com/post/183298543166/cant-draw-feet-so-i-cropped-them-out


End file.
